St. Louis — Saturday afternoon marked the perfect storm for a high-powered offense to go on the road and blow the place up.

The lightning-quick FieldTurf surface of the Edward Jones Dome without appreciable crowd noise.

Three of the opponents' six most valuable defensive players sitting out because of injury.

Gregg Williams, perhaps the heaviest blitzing defensive coordinator in the National Football League, sitting on his hands.

Eleven preferred offensive starters dying to show the league they're pretty good after being held back by a deluge and Mike McCarthy's coaching decisions last week in Tennessee.

"But, it's preseason," said Aaron Rodgers, the 10-year veteran quarterback who knows never to get too optimistic or too depressed about the brand of football being played in August.

Still, the onslaught that the Green Bay Packers unleashed against the St. Louis Rams in their opening two possessions really was a sight to behold.

"Run, pass, score," guard T.J. Lang said in succinct summation. "We have the best quarterback in the league. It's all about playing fast."

The Packers evened their record at 1-1 with the 21-7 victory over the Rams (0-2) before an unenthusiastic audience of about 25,000 to 30,000 in the 66,000-seat downtown facility.

After winning the toss and electing to receive, the Packers attacked with a hurry-up onslaught that extended 12 plays and covered 86 yards. It ended on one of those patented broken-route touchdown passes from a pump-faking Rodgers to Randall Cobb in the back of the end zone.

On the next series, Green Bay ran no-huddle for the first eight plays before the first quarter ended with a first down at the Rams' 12.

From there, McCarthy showed his interest in grinding meat with a double-tight-end set and a pair of runs by James Starks.

On third and 8, Jordy Nelson adjusted his fade route and then came back to catch a low bullet at the front left pylon for what looked like a 10-yard touchdown. An executive in personnel for another team called it the most impressive throw that Rodgers made.

Alas, the touchdown was removed on an illegal hands to the face penalty on David Bakhtiari against defensive end Eugene Sims.

Mason Crosby followed with a 31-yard field goal. The starters called it a day after 24 plays, 176 yards, 10 first downs and 10 points.

"It can be a great offense," said tight end Andrew Quarless. "We took a step forward today."

According to Lang, McCarthy told the team in one of his earliest speeches that the Packers were going to play all-out in 2014.

"Coach made it clear from Day One that we want to run as many plays as possible," said Lang. "Our goal is 75 plays a game. We had somewhere in the mid-60s last year."

In 17 games, the Packers averaged 66.8 snaps. However, seven full games and 57 minutes of another were quarterbacked by someone other than Rodgers.

On the first series, the Packers were in shotgun on only five snaps. But whether under center or not, Rodgers was herding his mates to the line and snapping plays off in a major hurry.

"More plays we run, more opportunities Aaron has to have the ball in his hand," Bakhtiari said.

The Packers started rookie Richard Rodgers at tight end and never even substituted on their opening 12 plays. It was Brandon Bostick in the second series before he departed early with a lower leg injury.

"We scored and we stayed healthy," said Rodgers. "That's kind of a perfect preseason game."

McCarthy's decision to start in no-huddle with a rapid tempo was a reflection of the daily tenor of training camp. For the first time, he had popular music of all kinds blaring through the sound system during offensive segments.

"No one could hear," said Nelson. "The music emphasized communication. It (Seattle) is the toughest place there is. I actually think Seattle will be louder (than the practice field)."

It would take considerable chutzpah on McCarthy's part to walk into CenturyLink Field on Sept. 4 without bothering to huddle on the first series.

"We want to play as fast as we can," Nelson said. "It's just what we want to do."

When the Packers didn't sub, the Rams couldn't, either. With Rodgers sharp as a razor blade (133.3 passer rating), the Rams' energy level diminished as the opening thrusts grew longer.

"If we can get a long drive it will wear the defense out," said Bakhtiari. "Long drives always do. And it'll make it easy for us."

The Rams, the NFL's 15th-ranked defense a year ago, did have one glove tied behind their back.

Meanwhile, Williams stood on the sideline biting his lip. He wasn't going to show much of anything.

"They played very vanilla on defense," Rodgers said. "They didn't bring any pressure really (other) than maybe one snap when we were out there."

Said Rams coach Jeff Fisher: "We anticipated the no-huddle out of Aaron...we actually practiced it yesterday. We had a couple single pressures with Aaron. Our philosophy was to just line up and play. We're holding a lot of stuff for our regular season as well."

Bakhtiari did excellent work staying in front of defensive end Robert Quinn. Not only did the offensive line protect, it paved the way for Eddie Lacy to gain 25 yards in five carries.

"It's going to take some pressure off the passing game and give us some more one-on-ones outside for Jordy and Jarrett (Boykin)," said Rodgers, referring to the ground game. "You need at least two backs, and we think we've got more than that."

Of JC Tretter, the new center, Rodgers said, “It’s (been) pretty seamless. He is very intelligent. Knows the checks. He’s not somebody you worry about.”

Lang listened to the roll call of missing Rams, then said, “It doesn’t matter to us who they put on the field. They had Quinn, (Chris) Long, the rookie (Aaron Donald) inside.

“We’ll do what we have to do.”

High in the press box, one personnel man for a team with an unsettled quarterback situation was asked what it was like watching a franchise quarterback at the peak of his powers.

“Wish we had him,” the scout said. “Tempo-wise, I haven’t seen anything like that this year.”

The Packers would dearly love for that scout to still be saying that six months from now.

About Bob McGinn

Bob McGinn is a beat writer and columnist covering the Green Bay Packers. A six-time Wisconsin state sportswriter of the year, he won the Dick McCann Memorial Award in 2011 for long and distinguished reporting on pro football.